1. Field of the Invention
The present general inventive concept relates to an image forming apparatus, and more particularly, to an image forming apparatus having a movable scan unit and a controlling method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Referring to FIG. 1, a conventional image forming apparatus comprises a main body 40 having an image forming portion 42, a scan unit 20 fixedly provided at an upper portion of the main body 40 and a cover 10 disposed at an upper portion of the scan unit 20 so as to open and close the upper portion of the scan unit 20.
The main body 40 comprises a paper cassette 44 for storing papers to be printed, a pick-up roller 52 for picking up the paper stored in the paper cassette 44, a conveying roller 56 for conveying the paper picked up by the pick-up roller 52, a developing unit 60 for forming an image on the paper, a fixing roller 69 for fixing the image on the paper using a high temperature and high pressure, and a discharging roller 72 for discharging the paper on which the image is fixed. Further, there is provided a discharging portion 76 for storing the papers discharged by the discharging roller 72.
An image sensor 24 is disposed in the scan unit 20 to move horizontally for detecting the image and then converting the image into an electric signal. A transparent glass flat plate 28 on which an original document having an image to be scanned is put is provided at an upper side of the scan unit 20. Further, the cover 10 is disposed at the upper portion of the scan unit 20 so as to open and close an upper portion of the glass flat plate 28.
When scanning or copying the document, a user opens the cover 10 and then puts the document on the glass flat plate 28 disposed at the upper side of the scan unit 20. The image of the document is detected by the image sensor 24 and then converted into the electric signal. A laser beam is applied to a photosensitive drum 61 disposed in the developing unit 60 according to the electric signal, thereby forming a latent image. The latent image is transferred to the paper using a high voltage of a transfer roller 64 and then fixed to the paper using the high temperature and high pressure of the fixing roller 69. The paper on which the image is fixed is discharged to the discharging portion 76 by the conveying roller 56.
In the above printing processes, the paper may be jammed in the discharging roller 72, etc. In order to remove the jammed paper, a separate door that can be opened and closed is generally provided.
The discharging portion 76 is provided at an upper side of the main body 40. The discharging portion 76 functions to store the discharged papers and also to cool heat generated from the image forming portion 42 disposed in the main body 40. Therefore, since the discharging portion 76 has to secure a predetermined space, there is a problem in that it is difficult to minimize a size of the image forming apparatus. Further, in a case that a predetermined number of the discharged papers are accumulated in the discharging portion 76, it is inconvenient to periodically remove the accumulated papers from the discharging portion 76 due to a limited space of the discharging portion 76.